Estate Management Co enforce parking controls / freehold

McDougal44

Hopefully someone will be able to help me here?

Own a freehold property with allocated parking space, approx 40 properties have 1-2 spaces each plus a small number of visitor spots.
A couple of years ago the estate management co asked us to vote on parking restrictions when they took ownership, we voted for no enforcement/permits etc.

Received a letter over the weekend which stated they were fed up with 'incorrect parking' and so if they continued would start parking enforcement including ticketing for not displaying permits.

My question is, as this is a freehold development, surely any tickets would be unenforceable? I read a leasehold thread on here from a few years ago where applying tickets also counted as trespass?
Any advice I can go back to the Property Management Co with so they don't sign up a parking enforcement agency would be great as I don't fancy paying increased annual fees for a parking warden to patrol the area (as most of the other home owners don't want to either)!

System

How can a parking space be "allocated" if it is freehold? It is either yours or it is not.

Sounds as if "your" space is not actually your's. Have you checked the lease?

Is this the Taylor Wimpey place you moved into in 2012? They are likely using a standard Law Society lease. Schedule 10 usually has their right to vary the "rules"

nosferatu1001

Any variation to the lease requires 75% agreement.

McDougal44

Allocated as in - the freehold displays my parking space within the communal drive. It's not the case that anyone can park anywhere (funny to watch when people do park in the wrong space though!)

Yes same place, will check the docs I signed later to see if I can see anything else.

Thanks - 75% seems to ring a bell with the previous vote!

The_Slithy_Tove

Is that parking space part of the demised property (normally outlined in red in the Deeds and on the contract you signed when you purchased)? If so, it's yours an no-one can impose any condition on it.

Alternatively, there may be an arrangement with the freeholder of the common areas (probably the roads). You need to find out who owns the land that isn't part of the freeholds, and how it's managed. Is there a Residents' Association, for example.

Again, the contract/deeds will lay out any covenants and easements you have over bits of land you don't own.

Half_way

Do as is advised above, and also familirise yourself with this

https://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/residential-parking/
and this ( jopson case) http://nebula.wsimg.com/f6d657adf7df70d27e1dd285688b5701?AccessKeyId=4CB8F2392A09CF228A46&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

beamerguy

The Estate management have no idea of the future
problems they will have by introducing a parking
rogue trader.

They need to read this forum to understand

Loadsofchildren123

McDougal44 wrote: »

Allocated as in - the freehold displays my parking space within the communal drive. It's not the case that anyone can park anywhere (funny to watch when people do park in the wrong space though!)

No idea what this means.


Parking is yours in two different ways:


1. the parking space is part of the property included in your freehold transfer, so there will have been a plan showing what was being sold to you (house plus parking space) and the wording in the definition of the property would have made it clear. So you actually own it.


2. there is a document telling you that you have rights to park in a particular defined spot. So you don't own it, but you have been granted rights to park in it. What is the document, and what exactly does it say?


Usually we see leaseholders with this problem. You're definitely freehold?


Now comes the interesting part. If you've either been granted exclusive rights to park in it, or you actually own it, nobody can interfere with your rights/ownership unless the documentation says they can.


Parking companies work by attempting to impose a contract on you. The contractual terms are set out on the signs they put up. If they are properly worded and adequately displayed then anyone parking, they say, accepts the contractual terms. If you then breach those terms, they sue you for enforcement of the contractual terms, which will say something like "If you fail to comply with these terms we will charge you £100".


So they have to prove a contract.


If you have pre-existing rights (or ownership) which cannot be interfered with (or can be interfered with but only if a particular procedure is followed and that procedure is not followed), then they can't contract to give you what you already have.


You need to write to the management company to tell them that you have rights to (or own) your space and you do not consent to anybody being brought in to police your use of your space, including a requirement on you, or anyone using the space on your authority, to display a permit. Say that you will NOT display a permit and that if they engage a parking company they must instruct it NOT to enter onto your space at all, nor to place tickets on any car parked in it. Tell them that if they do, then they will be committing a trespass and the management company, as principal, will be liable for that.


You'll probably do better by being polite at first. Explain how private parking companies seem like a good option but are notorious for being the scourge of residential sites because they are only interested in making money not actually sensibly policing parking, and they end up targeting genuine owners for misdemeanours such as permits falling off the dashboard, charging them £100 for the pleasure. Ask if you can opt out, or at the very least if they can ensure there is a clause in the contract which says that they can require the PPC to write off any tickets given to residents who were parked in their own space (a recent poster on here found that in the freeholder-PPC contract and so it got written off) and a "white list" of residents' VRMs is kept to facilitate the cancellation of charges to genuine residents parked in their own spaces.


Rally the other residents and get them to write as well. Send them here to see what they are getting into.

Loadsofchildren123

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/74563570#Comment_74563570


This is a good recent one to read (albeit leasehold) - it demonstrates the knots the management company will tie itself up in and how difficult it was for the leaseholder to get them to cancel the ticket, even though he was clearly entitled to a cancellation.